In June 2015, plaintiff Joo Lee, an engineer in his 50s, was terminated from his position at Raytheon Co., a government defense contractor based in El Segundo. Lee claimed that he previously made a formal complaint that supervisors were expecting employees to work more than 60 or 70 hours per week, despite allegedly telling the government that employees were only working standard 40-hour workweeks. As a result, Lee had a meeting with an ethics manager about the complaint. Shortly thereafter, Lee was terminated. Lee sued Raytheon Co., alleging that the defendant’s actions constituted retaliation and wrongful termination. The matter was intially filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court (see “Lee v. Raytheon Co.” Docket No. BC625666), but the case was removed to federal court on Aug. 12, 2016. Lee claimed that he asked supervisors about reporting that he was working more than 40 hours a week, as he was regularly driving from the Los Angeles area to Goleta, about 100 miles up the coast, to work at another facility. He claimed that his managers told him that he could only report nine-hour days, despite the commute time, and that employees were expected to work long hours, telling him, “You make a lot of money.” Lee claimed that a few days after his formal complaint to the ethics manager, he was fired in retaliation for reporting that timecard fraud. Defense counsel contended that Lee was terminated after an ethics department investigation found that Lee had violated company policies over labor charging, such as billing time for projects he had not worked on. Counsel also contended that Lee was fired for a legitimate, non-retaliatory reason. Defense counsel further contended that Lee only met with the ethics manager after he found out that the company was investigating how its records showed that Lee had only been on-site in Raytheon buildings for four or five hours a day, despite reporting that he had worked for 10 hours., Lee claimed he suffered emotional distress as a result of the incidents, causing him to get divorced and move out of his house. He also claimed that he has been unable to find a new job. Thus, Lee sought recovery of $3.56 million in damages, including $2.56 million in lost wages and $1 million in damages for his past and future emotional distress. (Lee focused his damages on his wage loss.)